Get over it. The world you thought was real is a total sham. Most of what you see is a tiny fraction of what is there. Even worse, you repress your own basic needs as well as your own potentially boundless creativity, understanding, and desires at the behest of community, commercial, economic, religious, societal, and/or state institutions rather than to make the life of your fellow man better. That doesn’t even count the actual oppression, which usually doesn’t need to occur because we’re so darn good at being repressed!

The reality is that the entirety of the universe much less our planet and even our society are still beyond our scope of understanding by a factor of 10 to 100 or more than we naturally assume after watching a TV program explaining scientific facts, reading a book by a leading author on a subject, taking a class, or even getting a major with a teacher at the top of their field. Once you get to the end of the line on a journey of known scientific thinking you can suddenly peer out over the edge and notice what a flimsy little raft of understanding we are standing on.

We’re trying to imagine moving beyond our solar system, which is great, and I encourage this; but we barely have the first clue as to how the deepest bottoms of our own oceans work yet. That does seem like it should be of equal priority, and sadly, it basically is. They are both of little or no priority. It’s a good thing corporate America is here! They’ll pillage any landscape no matter how pristine in search of the almighty dollar. Who knows, there could be oil down there. Wouldn’t that make some money? By all means lets accelerate this environmental catastrophe by allowing the pursuit of tangible things attached to intangible ideas like money for other intangible ideas like power!

Well, let’s not ruminate too deeply on how completely upside down the world is. How about instead we just start being a bit more critical. Yeah, same old thing, same old application. Ask more questions. Doubt more often. Stop overlooking things and try underlooking them. Maybe slide past things in an especially cool looking matrix-like manner occasionally, you know, just for a goof. Life can still be fun, even when you’re fighting the greatest attacks on personal freedoms since the end of feudalism!

So, on to the good stuff. I propose a new law.

The Law of the Unknown:
Most of what there is to know is yet to be discovered.

This law will enforce humbleness upon science – something it has yet to learn.

This law will be a challenge to defeat – how do you disprove something that we haven’t proved exists yet – a limit to what we can know.

This law will encourage us to think of new questions rather than always merely questioning old questions.

Of course, we should still remember to question the answers to old questions too, as well as the old questions themselves – that’s just fun anyway isn’t it. Yeah I know, I’m weird. ^^

All I’m essentially saying is what Giordano Bruno said, but I’m trying to extend it to all gods, science as a belief system, the state as a god/belief, capitalism as a belief/worldview, democracy as a belief/worldview, etc, ad nauseum is simply this: “Your God is too small.”

Your ‘Ego’ is too big. It’s OK. Mine is too. Well hell, honestly, how do I know that all of this of mine isn’t actually all too small for any of you? I don’t. I’m sure it is for some if not all. That relieves me. It seems like not enough people are growing. Society is certainly trying to keep us as as small as possible isn’t it? I thought I’d better get it out there before the thought police come along. I’m off to frolic for a bit.

P.S. Yes I just watched Cosmos.
P.P.S. I just like writing P.P.S.
P.P.P.S. I don’t believe in scientific laws.

This is but one face of what acceptable bigotry looks like in the United States: you can discriminate against a person for having too high of an IQ and deny them a job as a police officer. It’s law as of 2000 in Connecticut at least. I wonder if it is a more widespread practice now?

This is bigotry against intelligence. I thought our country was all about equality of opportunity (not equality of outcome as those with money like to remind us – in our capitalist society) and didn’t practice bigotry in law? Oh wait, that’s right, we’re still practicing bigotry against homosexual couples.

What reason could they have beyond not wanting officers to not get bored and quit? Smarter officers would make better decisions right? Do we not want our officers to make better decisions? No, that’s just crazy talk. You’re all going to hell for reading this. Hell I tell you! Be afraid! Buy more! Be happy!

Yep, that’s right, this is a story about Robert Jordan, the man who’s too smart to be a cop. His IQ of 125 is too high.

Read about it from an ‘original source’ here:Court OKs Barring High IQ CopsP.S. Look at the date on this article: 2000 CE. That’s Current Era for all of you AD lovin folks.

It is interesting to me that during Obama’s first (2008) election I voted for him, even while explaining to people how it would change little if anything. After his first election I paid attention the whole time to his administration, and I tried to call the administration out on all the points at which he had betrayed his constituency when and where I could, appropriateness being the tantamount concern of course.

The next election (2012) I voted for “Rocky Anderson” (a true liberal) of the “Justice Party” (another good but doomed 3rd party) instead, fully knowing that Obama would win anyway because he was seen as “the lesser of two evils.” I had high hopes for 3rd parties until I realized they are all doomed because the Supreme Court has allowed states to impose higher standards upon 3rd party candidates than on Democrats or Republicans. The reason asserted by the Supreme Court was that the two-party system had served America so well in the past.

After realizing this I started explaining how he’s acting like a neoconservative again, but with a slight shift in my mindset towards the solution. Now I just advocate for “Protest Voting,” or turning in a blank ballot, till we get rid of the two-party system and legalized bribery.

I will even spell out the solution. We need to get public funding for political candidates, and only public funding. We need the Supreme Court to repeal their silly interpretation of whatever law they used as justification for allowing the hobbling of 3rd parties. We need the loss of corporate person-hood. The acknowledgement by our judicial system that even though a corporation may have the responsibilities of a human being it does not have the rights of a human being. To say that a corporation is used as a person for tax and other useful reasons in a legal sense, but as a member or the community, it can only be a second class citizen; because it has no body, no soul, no brain, no heart, no pain, no life, and no mercy, a corporation is simply not a human being.

Anyway, I find it sad yet amusing to note that this young woman has come to many of the same simple conclusions as I have. I guess beauty does have its advantages.

P.S. This woman has obviously been flipped to the libertarian/anarchist side, which I think is complete and total hogwash. That said, everything she says is true.

I must credit the title of this short essay to a friend of mine whose health I am currently deeply concerned about. In fact, he is a man who is not unlike a mentor to me. I should also explain clearly that he cannot be accused of implanting any of the thoughts beyond the title in my grey matter. This is me just grabbing a ball that was thrown my way and running with it; or perhaps it is more akin to sauntering vaguely Westward like an owl with a broken wing and a dead mouse in one claw. Perhaps I should be skipping happily Eastward instead, merely being happy to be alive. But that could be explored in the future, assuming my mortal coil and the remains of the dead rodent I bear retain enough nutrients and calories to repair my broken wing. Yeah, the wing will likely heal.

As you may have guessed by now, the meat of the subject at hand is politics, economics, life, death, pain, suffering, and finally hope. It is surely the job of a gifted wordsmith to describe their understanding of their perceptions of the times as well as they are able for the posterity of history and progression of human thought and action; or at the very least to assess the current health of society at large. Unfortunately, I could not find a gifted wordsmith, so I feel compelled to write this rather trivial piece of literature myself instead.

We are currently living in an illusory global financial emergency and an actual, yet not fully acknowledged global environmental melt-down. Even first world countries are currently being cannibalized by regional and world powers through finance or war. There is general material instability among the vast majority of the world’s populace and total lawlessness in some places; Somalia is a good example of this. Then there is also the ever-present vexation of actual starvation for far too many.

Probably more importantly, there is a proliferation of conventional and nuclear weapons; which may actually make our species susceptible to near catastrophic global annihilation. The threat of nearly global nuclear destruction has surely been perceived to be more likely in the past. Yet this threat remains, and has become a part of everyday life that is nearly a joke for the simple reason that there is nothing anyone thinks they can do about it. A wise man once said to me: “Sometimes [Impartial Juror], you’ve got the choice of either laughing or crying.” He always laughed after repeating this anti-platitude. So perhaps it is healthy that we can laugh about it; but it doesn’t mean we should merely brush off the danger as if it doesn’t exist. Nonetheless, I will always be grateful for this wisdom that was passed on to me, and laughing.

Americans live in a society where a nearly half of the population simply lives from one paycheck to another, and a third are near bankrupt. Under such circumstances there is surely going to be some inordinately common and serious social turmoil in essentially all of our lives. Only the most well-to-do are able to avert such serious situations as possible evictions, divorces, addictions, physical illness, mental illness, or even actual starvation.

It is during these times of turmoil that many of our elected officials find the audacity, excuses, and audience that will support their policies of regressive tax policies and cuts in social welfare programs despite the clear evidence that such policies are actually counterproductive. How do they do it? The short answer is that they divide and conquer through manipulation using fear and intimidation. The long answer is a different article entirely.

Should it be any surprise that it seems like everyone knows somebody who is absolutely in complete crisis? Somebody who has had or is having part if not all of their world shaken so violently that the magma at the center of their planet is in danger of exploding out of the globe and destroying an overwhelming amount of their health, security, and happiness? And who is benefiting from all this misery? Is the answer not most assuredly that the global elite are the only ones profiting from this suffering?

With that in mind, I admit that I too am a part of this shared, sustained, national trauma. It has become an accepted part of life in our society that, not out of callousness, but out of sheer necessity, nearly everyone is jumping from crisis to crisis trying to manage situations that are often inevitably unmanageable, forcing us to leave some behind.

This sort of lifestyle takes a toll on people. The effects have become evident in every community in this nation. We must bring this to an end. We have to make this rock bottom and rise again. If we don’t take action soon, I fear we will not have the resources or freedom to act at all. In fact, we need to take action yesterday ladies and gentlemen. I have some ideas, and they will be forthcoming in future posts.

All that said, I must admit that it’s good to have something to write about. There is no bad experience for a writer, just material. I think my pal is right about that. Though I wish the material at hand was more positive.

So, let’s inject some positivity into this post in the form of a song about a woman, a single brave woman who made a difference. Let us not forget that we all can. Furthermore, alone we can make waves, and together we can move oceans.

This woman had the determination we have lacked, the passion we should be adhering to, and the kind of courage we need, Mary Harris Jones, Mother Jones. Her story always gives me strength and resolve, and Ani Difranco has paired up with Utah Phillips to write an inspiring song about her. It encourages me and gives me a sense of hope for humanity whenever I listen to it. It reminds me that if she alone could make so much of a difference, together, we can make all the difference in the world. So, without further ado, let’s listen to a song about the most dangerous woman in the world! May Day is coming!

My usual readers will know already that I have great respect for the artist named Immortal Technique. He has recently been interviewed on the Alex Jones show. Why would he do such a thing you might ask. I would answer that question this way:

Is this not what we need, the left and right are coming together? We must integrate, not separate. United we stand, and divided we fall correct?

The reality is that if we can stop agreeing to disagree: we will often find that always agreed to begin with. Very often when we argue or disagree it is a result of using different words, different definitions for words, being manipulated, and being in pain (which is the primary emotion that leads to the secondary emotion – anger).

Instead I suggest, that when we reach an impasse in conversation, we should stop disagreeing for the moment, give each other space and time, come back when desired and desirable, and then share instead of trying to convince each other of things.

Don’t be intimidated by the length of this video. However long you can listen to it, please do. I assert that you will get out what you put into listening to this. For those of you that know me already I think you will agree and already know what I am saying.

As always, your thoughts and feedback will be appreciated (wanted and needed too).

In this TED presentation Ken Robinson takes America’s education system to task. He defends a well rounded education that includes The Arts, analyzes the way our system dulls curiosity, attacks the “epidemic” of ADHD, discusses the overemphasis on standardized testing, and explains how our educational system stifles creativity and individuality by relying on enforcing conformity and compliance.

Yet another innocent person, Makia Smith, has been heinously beaten for the mere act of filming police officers in the act of beating a fellow citizen. This Baltimore woman was allegedly dragged from her car by her hair and beaten by three officers before the eyes of everyone in the middle of a door-to-door traffic jam, including her two year old daughter. For the sake of shaming the accused I would like to note that the names of the accused officers are Nathan Church, William Pilkerton, Jr., Nathan Ulmer and Kenneth Campbell. That’s right, I’m jumping on the guilty until proven innocent bandwagon today. If CNN, FOX, ABC, and NBC can do it when it suits them then so can I.

If you are surprised by this story or the video please unclench your rectum so that you can pull your head out of your nether regions. How often do stories like this have to appear before they are understood to be more than just another piece of anecdotal evidence of police brutality? The reality is that there is a pervasive cultural more that has been painstakingly beaten, literally or metaphorically, into the psyche of every American since the time we were children in school. Every citizen must accept that authority represents justice, and if an authority figure tells you to do something you should do it without question. If you don’t, you are a trouble-maker, a rabble-rouser, a criminal, a ne’er-do-well, an enemy of order, and an enemy of society.

Furthermore, you should be afraid. You should be so afraid that you don’t even try to resist, you don’t try to speak up, and you don’t try to collect evidence. If you even try to assert your rights you should know that it is your fault when you get beaten down, and you should sit there and take the beating because you deserve it.

Our society has become utterly deranged by fear. It is no wonder after twelve years of constant bombardment by the government and media about how every American is under attack merely for believing in freedom. The sad truth is that the attacks against people believing they are free are not made by terrorists but by our own “public servants.” The solution, of course, is to give up your freedom. That’s how we prove that the terrorists haven’t won!

I would like to provide you with some statistics regarding how many U.S. citizens are assaulted by police officers each year, but I can’t find any such statistics. The closest thing I can find to statistics are some some poorly documented pages like this one and this one from http://www.copblock.org. Even Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have little or nothing in the way of statistics on police brutality in the United States.

According to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) “Comprehensive statistics on police violence in the US are not available, as the national statistics bureaus are under special instructions not to compile them (while statistics on the most obscure criminological categories are reported in great detail). However, the available evidence points to a sharp rise in police violence, not just in terms of the number of incidents, but also in terms of their brutality.”

I would appreciate any help in finding any such statistics. It appears that at the very least they are hard statistics to come by. Perhaps they are edited out of search results, or are buried so deeply that they are effectively non-existent. I find it more likely that, as the WSWS states, they simply don’t exist. Those would be extremely inconvenient statistics for the police and the state.

This debate is required viewing for anyone who appreciates the work of either of these two great minds. It takes place in 1971 as the war in Vietnam rages on. They discuss their respective specialties, human nature, the direction of society, society’s institutions, class warfare, capitalism, Marxism, anarcho-syndicalism, and much more.

This article from Roar Magazine (which claims a share of the credit for translation) about the debate adds some interesting background information and contains a full transcript of the discussion.

There is also another complete version that doesn’t appear to omit anything except the additional commentary; though most would probably benefit from the clarifications of the commentator included in the first video.

According to this article the Adlynn & Robert Harte, who were both CIA employees in the past and appear to be pretty familiar with the law, were targeted for having purchased merchandise from a hydroponics store. As the couple’s lawsuit states:

“With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors.”

They were and are law abiding citizens who had nothing more than a six legal plants in their basement. They were raided, at gunpoint, due to shoddy police-work and without probable cause. They are filing a federal civil rights lawsuit in response. Good luck to them. They should win.

I recognize that many would think that if I was truly a bleeding heart liberal I would be more supportive of our President and Democratic congressmen (and women!).

Sadly, if you haven’t noticed, President Barack Obama and his herd are just the other side of the coin called the corporate party. Of course, I had no love for President George W. Bush or his herd either. Hell, I actually voted for Obama the first time, but as Dubya so eloquently put it “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me.. can’t get fooled again.”

My problems with our liberal leadership are many and varied. A true liberal doesn’t allow tanks to roll through the streets inside of their own country. A true liberal doesn’t offer to cut Social Security as an opening move in budget negotiations (what would the equivalent be in chess – perhaps playing without any pawns). A true liberal doesn’t allow torture. A true liberal doesn’t circumvent due process and the rule of law to catch the bad guys. A true liberal doesn’t give up the liberty of his people, no matter what the cost, ever.

If the citizens that considered themselves Democrats or Republicans had any spine they would stand up for what they supposedly believe in, protest, make their representatives act on their beliefs, and never vote for either party again. Instead it is apparent that the majority of people who consider themselves either a Democrat or a Republican merely support “their man” without question (let’s take that literally too – we have never had a woman president – Pakistan has).

I wish members of both political parties could have the courage to admit that both of “their guys” screwed up our economy, infringed upon our civil liberties, violated the Geneva Conventions, and engaged in thinly veiled resource wars in the name of “democracy” and “terrorism.” Of course, that would mean admitting that we were wrong when we supported one side or the other. It would mean admitting that all those arguments we had with people of the other party were really just us being the unwitting patsies of the plutocracy. It would mean that we would have to actually do something other than repeat the canned phrases that we hear on MSNBC and FOX news. It would mean we would have to admit that the two-party system is fatally flawed. I can see why most Americans can’t bear to do that. It takes some real courage to admit when you have been wrong and it has hurt just about everyone you know.

I will admit it to you now. I was wrong for at least 80% of my life. I thought the Democrats had my back. They didn’t. Anybody else?

I may sound radical but let’s think about our current situation critically. Tanks are rolling around in our streets and DEMOCRATS are JUST FINE with it. If that doesn’t qualify the United States as a military state and an authoritarian regime I don’t know what does. Can you imagine what Democrats would be saying if George W. Bush had allowed tanks to roll around in our streets? This is what is called a cult of personality, you know, like the Dear Leader in North Korea has. Patriotism is all well and good but this rally around the flag mentality has gotten completely out of hand. Stop being motivated by fear. Start standing up for your rights and the rights of others. The men and women in uniform that have died for us over the last 237 years deserve that we honor them by at least not being utterly ignorant and craven cowards.

It is with these things in mind that I have decided to refer to our current President as “Dear Leader” in honor of his cult of personality and his authoritarian regime. I will also pray to our Dear Leader, never take his name in vain, and when Passover comes I will put the blood of a member of the opposing party (whichever party that is at the time) above my door to make sure that “my guy” knows I’m with him so he doesn’t kill my firstborn son. That said, to use our Dear Leader’s favorite cliché, “Make no mistake,” I am as disappointed in the American people as I am with our leadership. Now, get back to the herd and go back to sheep.. er.. I mean sleep.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a bill going through the US Congress right now. The goal of CISPA is to allow the US government to more effectively police the internet. Legislators have been trying to get a bill of this nature signed into law for many years, and in fact did try to pass a previous version of this same bill in 2011. It has been reintroduced by Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan’s 8th district. North Korean hackers, Wikileaks, and even the Boston bombing have already been used to justify the reintroduction of this draconian bill.

The problem with this bill is that it would allow the U.S. government to collect personal information about online users from companies without having to issue a warrant. In other words, they don’t need to have any proof or a valid reason to investigate you to get information about your browsing habits, what websites you visit, how often, what you say, and who you interact with. There is even a provision in the bill would allow US companies to require employees to give them the passwords for their social networking accounts (for websites like Facebook) according to the Huffington Post. That is my understanding of the proposed law.

President Obama has vowed to veto the bill unless better privacy rights are not incorporated into the bill. I wonder what President Obama considers acceptable protection of privacy and if his requirements would actually be adequate. This sounds to me like posturing to satisfy his political base. I would wager that if congress makes some largely superficial changes to the bill to make it sound better our dear leader will sign it into law.

Anonymous has asked the internet community to blackout their websites. Almost 400 websites have joined in their protests; but sadly none of the big movers and shakers like Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, or Facebook have taken part (clearly WordPress.com hasn’t).

This is what you call an unlawful search according to the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution which “applies to the states by way of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” (quote from the Wikipedia page). To my fellow Americans and the citizens of the world. Recognize this and do what you can. I do not endorse acts of terrorism or killing. I am a pacifist and I fear for the lives of my countrymen. I love everyone. I must be careful what I say and do or become a target of the state as well. We all must. Where can America’s drones not reach? Does anybody really know?

Read the comments in the original youtube video for further information. I hope to be here tomorrow to keep writing. If I am not here tomorrow you will know why. Should that occur I encourage people to figure out who I actually am as I have carefully hidden myself from only the most casual search for my actual identity. Perhaps I am being paranoid. I hope that is the case.

15 more of the 166 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have been held since 2002, mostly without any charge due to a lack of any substantive evidence, have joined the hunger strike that has been going on since February of this year. It is not enough that these prisoners’ human rights have been violated by being tortured against the statutes of the Geneva Conventions. It is not enough that the Obama Administration has not managed to close down Guantanamo Bay prison facility, as has been repeatedly promised, and as lefties maintain President Obama has every intention of doing. We now have evidence of new violations of American law.

I dispute the idea that the Obama Administration ever really intended to close down the facility. It was just another empty campaign promise. My assertion is supported by the fact that it is well known that congress does not have the political will to close down the facility. This is further reinforced by the news of bugs found in the rooms where attorneys meet with their clients, emails and data that have been “lost” on government servers, and emails and data that have been removed from private servers, clearly by government hackers. Really, who else has the resources to find out where all these private servers are and has the means and motive to do it? This is all far to convenient to be an accident. Cenk Unger of TYT explains the most recent injustices quite well.

What if the only way to see the truth is to watch the right, the left, the center, the “radicals” on all “sides,” disregard most of what they all say, and then figure out the truth on your own based on a broad view instead of a narrow one? What if Denis Kucinich is the left’s version of Ron Paul and was just as valuable? What if that’s the reason both of them were ignored and deemed radicals who were unelectable What if we can agree on this? Wouldn’t that be nice.

I do not agree with everything Napolitano says, but there is a whole lot of truth to what he says. I do not agree all his stances such as his views on abortion (pro-life) or on gay marriage. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t see the big picture. Don’t let the details deter you from seeing the broad strokes.

This article, “FBI shows up at teenager’s home to ask about his Ron Paul school report” explains what happened in response to this video. In brief, a teenager, Justin Hallman, made a video for his American government class and the FBI showed up as his house. They accosted him about his ideas and tried to turn him into an asset against Anonymous. I am pretty certain that it is not legal to try to turn a minor into an FBI asset. This is not acceptable on any level. It is unconstitutional. Like all Americans, this young man has his right to freedom of speech. Nobody should be accosted by the FBI for their school projects even if the government doesn’t like them. He did not advocate overthrowing the government. The FBI had no legitimate basis for their actions.

On a personal note, I do not support Ron Paul, but I see the wisdom in many of his stances on civil liberties and constitutionality. It is a great loss that he is no longer a US congressman.

This is not about getting traffic for my blog. I am not one of those people. This is about the welfare of our country. My opinion is that this information should be shared in whatever capacity you choose, but it should be shared quickly and effectively.

As Jürgen Habermas explained, the ‘lifeworld’ of everyday social and moral action and interaction has now been long subdued by the ‘systems world’ of the free market and money. It was true in the 1970’s when “the Network” was first written and it is more true each day that we allow money and power to dictate our actions instead of our mutual interest in each other, morality, and preservation of our world. Am I getting through to anyone? Trees are real. Rocks are real. Thoughts are real. Emotions are real. You are real. Power isn’t real. Money isn’t real. Money and power are figments of your imagination, they exist only insofar as you think they do.

The fiat currency system and the focus on percentage-based economic growth foisted upon us by those devils we call companies, governments, economists, advertisers, and capitalists is destroying our world, our cultures, our societies, and it will eventually destroy us. The cycle of endless consumption to continue economic growth cannot continue forever. Planned obsolescence is a great example of this.

If you don’t think corporations are that evil then ask yourself how long your next computer will last. Two to four years if you are lucky. Ask yourself how long your next operating system will last. Two to four years if you are lucky. Ask yourself how long each part on your car will last. Ask yourself how long your next cellphone will last. Ask yourself how long your next video game console will last. Ask yourself how long your next TV will last. Ask yourself how long tapes, CD’s, DVD’s, and mini-discs lasted; and how long will Blu-Ray discs last. Why is it cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy a new ink cartridge? Why is it nearly impossible to refill an ink cartridge rather than replace it? Why do we continue to use fossil fuels when solar power, wind power, and ocean currents could easily supply us with all the energy we need for the rest of eternity if properly researched and managed.

Profit and greed are the primary motivations of our individualistic, adolescent, greedy society. Why do you think George W. Bush told us to not worry, suggesting we instead that we go out and shop after 9-11. Well, he did want us to worry, (or it wouldn’t have happened) but he also wanted us to continue to consume. The masses couldn’t figure it out in the 1970’s. We can only hope that they will be able to figure it out before it is too late. Perhaps the continued degradation of the chain of life is more easily recognizable now. I will keep trying to point it out.

Stop worrying about yourselves and your money. It is all an illusion. There is only us, the one interconnected system of life called Gaia, and we are being killed by the systems world with our willing participation after being brainwashed by a group of short-sighted, greedy, capitalist elites who want to be served like kings for eternity by the rest of the population.

We live in an age where, because of our advanced technology, we could all live in comfort and easily only work 2-4 hours each day. But our endless desire for more stuff, largely generated by advertisers, is necessary to prop up an unsustainable economic model and is requiring two people to work 40 hours each week to just barely scrape by in each household. Unemployment isn’t the problem. The idea that everyone should be employed and working 40 hours a week is the problem. The fact that we allow the capitalist class to take 90% of the profit from the work we do is the problem.

We live in an age of technological progress and increased production that could allow us to use the vast majority of our time to sit and think, make art, enjoy the company of our loved ones, explore space, explore consciousness, and work on even better technology that would allow us to work even less while producing even more efficiently; yet we live in perpetual fear that a machine will take our job away instead of make it (and our lives) easier. Wake up America. If we don’t change our ways soon the dream will surely be dead.

The U.S. will join the likes of North Korea, Iran, and Syria by not ratifying the new arms trade treaty passed at the UN General Assembly. President Obama committed to signing it, but it is an empty promise because the US Senate will not ratify it and he knows it. The Republicans won’t allow it. That makes it safe for him to say the opposite of what he knows ‘we need to allow’ and keep his base happy (go team Repulicrat/Demican). You know the military-industrial complex would be not be happy if America actually stopped being the world’s largest arms supplier. That said, does anyone actually think less arms are going to be traded after this treaty? Who will regulate the arms trade? Oh that’s right, nobody – the UN has no enforcement ability.

If you thought that the age of covert operations against legal domestic organizations ended with COINTELPRO in the 1970’s you would be wrong. This article cites information from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that prove that the Department of Homeland Security was focused on suppressing media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests to stifle dissent.

To quote Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the Executive Director of The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), “The federal agencies’ actions were not because Occupy represented a ‘terrorist threat’ or a ‘criminal threat’ but rather because it posed a significant grassroots political challenge to the status quo.”

This should be no surprise to anyone who is aware of the domestic spying against Americans done at the “fusion centers” that are now all across the US. The 72 fusion centers were created in the wake of 9-11 as a supposed center for law enforcement agencies to share information about “terrorist threats.” Instead, they have been spending their time violating Americans’ first amendment rights and monitoring people who have the temerity to do things like put political stickers in public bathrooms or participate in movements against the death penalty. According to a bipartisan Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report finished in 2012 and this article, “somewhere between $289 million and $1.4 billion was spent to produce “crap” while violating the civil right [sic] of citizens with no accountability.”

Step 1: Sign free trade agreements and open foreign corporate ownership.
***If step one fails then*** Step 2: Back an opposition group or the military in a coup d’état.
***If step two fails then*** Step 3: Military intervention.
***If step three fails then return to step one***

This is a broad reaching 3 part BBC documentary about inequality, class, privilege, game theory, human nature, freedom, democracy, authoritarianism, and terrorism, in Britain and the United States. The documentary examines economic theories, the psychiatric community, the financial industry, the revolution of statistical analysis as a means of increasing efficiency, and even capitalism itself. I can’t tell you how much this documentary made me think. No matter which lens you look through our world at, you’ll have a greater understanding of our societies after watching this. It’s well worth the time.

Some countries and even Texas appear to be loosing faith in the 1/10 fractional fiat currency regime. They are taking their gold out of the Federal Reserve. I don’t think this bodes well for the United States.

“Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation. This is even before they’ve started budget negotiations with Republicans”
An excerpt from his blog post.

There is another thing Mr Reich is wrong about. WE NEED CLASS WARFARE, and he’s an appeaser because he doesn’t recognize the Democratic Party as the bunch of plutocratic lapdogs they are.

To illustrate the power the economic thugs in control wield over us I’ve written (perhaps traced) a comparison of the power dynamics in the leadership of a fictional mafia boss (Tony Soprano) in his community with the leadership of the elite, the bankers (banksters), the capitalists, and/or the old rich in the international community.

I used this page as my template. You may want to read it first or after. It is a description of the role of a “Crime Boss” in the TV show “The Sopranos” on the sopranos.wikia.com page. My changes are in bold.

The Elite Capitalists

The elite capitalists are at the top position in the pyramidal organization of the central banks, world corporations, states, and citizens. They are occasionally referred to as the elite, the bourgeoisie, the old rich, or the elite families. The elite capitalists have the job of keeping theirbanks and corporations running at maximum profitability for the elite. The extremely complex duties of elite capitalists include influencing elections within states, settling disputes by rigging elections and buying off or pressuring politicians, dealing with outside interests (adding unsubdued states into the their financial free trade, privatization, foreign ownership, and banking paradigm), initiating new business ventures (increasing elite wealth via bank, state, and corporate wealth mechanisms such as the recent reckless banking behaviors resulting in bailouts from citizens of various states, which socialized debt onto citizens), and developing schemes via the media to avoid interference from the public. It is also the elite capitalists’ job to sanction executions of regressive tax systems and other wealth generating mechanisms at the cost of the citizens of aligned states and perform hits on other unaligned states (killing anyone anti-regime after denouncing them as terrorists or dominating unaligned statesdiplomatically, economically, or militarily). For their troubles, the elite are rewarded with a percentage of the earnings of every state and company under them. To quote Tony Soprano, “Money flows uphill, shit flows downhill.”

Maintaining a banking neocolonialism can be tricky: the submission of states and citizens is ideally maintained through propaganda and economic warfare between the lower and middle classes among the competing states, even through war if necessary, by using the state(s) with the most power. The elite always include a sponsor state (empire).The United States moved into the top position when the old empire (The United Kingdom)retired (lost hegemony).

Ideal situations, are frequent and there is almost always an amount of disharmony allowing the elite to continue making money following the manufactured or natural disasters in a state or of a corporation. In the case of the current ruling elite families’, Great Britainlost its hegemony and shortly arrangements were set in stone for a succession (the United States), resulting in a 45 year struggle for power between the United States and the USSR (very profitable). The rest of the states assumed the roles of pawns as the elite made/make money through wars, labor cost imbalances, and resource (actual value) extraction. In the end the elitesupport the United Satesin its hegemony, albeit mostly to provide them with a “lightning rod” to take the major hits from the people while statesand corporations make most of the day-to-day business decisions. The plan has worked brilliantly, as the United States has become a thriving plutocracy and military state (to say the least) allowing the elite to continue to run things as they see fit even if the citizens United States do not benefit.

I would be behind one family at a time being permitted to join by lottery. That way the non-elite (especially women) have a chance, and entire families (mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters) should always be given the chance to immigrate as well. I’m just going off of common sense, but isn’t it greedy to require only the best of each other country when you’re still on top; wouldn’t families (not the economy) do better as a group? Oops, I forgot about the dollar. My bad.

This is Immortal Technique’s latest album. He sells his own CD’s so he can have full creative control. He uses this freedom to say things that the establishment would rather you not hear. This album is also free. The man really wants to open minds and affect positive change.
“You can only get ’em off your back when you stand up!” -Immortal Technique

Noam explains how the global elite, the “Plutonomy,” (modern world plutocrats) have taken advantage of the “Precariot,” (those precariously employed) by taking control of financial sectors in the US and Europe that eat out the modern market economy from the inside out, just as the larvae of a spider-wasp eats out its host.

Normally I agree with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks political stances. I agree with Ana Kasparian even more often (but that’s beside the point). On this issue though, I thought this guy on Youtube tore Cenk’s argument for gun control apart; and I consider Cenk to normally be on the side of reason. The bottom line is that Lee Doren proves to have researched his facts better than Cenk.